This follows Chief Minister Mayawati’s recent decision to abolish all the offices of zonal inspector generals.

Incidentally, Vijay Singh, the IG (Establishment) who deals with the matters related to lower rank police officers, is also secretary-rank officer in the Chief Minister’s Office.

This comes at a time when the poll dates are expected to be announced by the Election Commission at any moment.

The posting of such officers will matter during the election as they are supposed to control the lowest unit of policing.

Earlier, the practice was to transfer inspectors and sub-inspectors from one zone to another and they were told to report to the DIG of that range by the office of erstwhile zonal IGs.

“Now the superintendent of police would post such officers in his district as per his choice,” a source in the administration said.

Sources in the DGP office said about 80 sub-inspectors and nearly 45 inspectors were recently shifted to different districts from their current place of postings.

The source said that the DGP office has shifted sub-inspectors to various districts, including Varanasi, Moradabad, Meerut, Bulandshahr, Bareilly and Badaun. “The transfer orders of the sub-inspectors were issued by the DIG (Establishment) who sits in Allahabad. The government has constituted a Police Establishment Board that approves the transfers,” the source added.

In connection to this, the DIG (Establishment) has sent a list of the transferred officers to all the districts concerned.

Most of the police officers felt that the direct shifting of lower rank police officers to a district is a clear indication of political intervention in police matters.

“Earlier, the system made it very difficult for a politician to get the posting of a lower rank police officer to a particular area. But this new system enables him to get the officer of his choice posted directly in his district concerned,” an IPS officer said.

Sources in the Election Commission said that it is keeping a close watch on all such transfers.

“This is really a tough job to identify such officers who were shifted to a district with political purposes. But we have kept a close watch on such transfers. We have so far not received any complaint from any political parties on this issue,” a source said.

The IG (Establishment), Vijay Singh, said he is not authorised to talk to the press.